Joe and Umbreon: Sinnoh Adventures
by xjoedirtx
Summary: Joe, Umbreon, and Steph leave Hoenn to go on an adventure in Sinnoh, meeting new friends and pokemon. Takes place a little bit after J&U, in Sinnoh. Read and Review!
1. Prologue Pt1

I never thought that I would ever be there, at Ever Grande City for the Hoenn League final match. It had been six months since I set out from Fresno to compete in the Hoenn League, and I'd made it. I made my way through the preliminaries with little effort. The qualifying rounds were tough, but Umbreon and Houndoom proved how much they'd grown, both as individuals, since I'd obtained them, and as a team since their battle at the Mossdeep gym against Tate and Liza.

In the finals, I was shocked to see that Stephen, one of my rivals and Alice's ex boyfriend, had made it through. He'd gotten more powerful, especially his Vigoroth. In the end, it was Umbreon versus Vigoroth, just like the first time we'd met, except this time we weren't fighting over Alice. We were fighting for the Ever Grande Conference tournament win. If I beat him, it would mean that I would go up against Mark, my rival from Sandbreak town, in the final match. Umbreon gave it all she had.

"Umbreon, quick attack, go!"

"Vigoroth, slash!"

Umbreon rocketed towards Vigoroth, who in turn ran at Umbreon. He wasn't fast enough on the swing, and Umbreon jumped and crashed head-first into his stomach, sending him skidding back on his feet, then dropping to one knee.

"I can see Umbreon's gotten stronger," shouted Stephen from across the field. "You must have done a lot of training since our last battle! But that doesn't mean that Vigoroth hasn't gotten stronger, too! Go, night slash!"

Vigoroth got up onto his feet and held his right claw out to the side, where it began to glow dark purple, brimming with dark energy. He started running towards Umbreon. She attempted to dodge the attack, but he was too fast, and his claw struck down her side. Her stance started to waver, and she closed one eye and cried out in pain. Vigoroth ran in for a follow-up attack with slash, but after having dealt with Vigoroth's slash attack so many times before, she knew all too well how to evade.

"Umbreon, use dark pulse!"

Umbreon landed on her feet, and while Vigoroth's back was turned, she opened up her mouth and created a ball full of purple circles. When he turned around, it was too late, and from the ball a beam of the circles shot out, repeatedly striking him and sending him flying back.

"Great job Umbreon, now fire back with another dark pulse!"

"Vigoroth, dodge and use X-scissor!"

Umbreon blasted the beam of purple circles at him again, but as he ran at her, claws glowing a bright, light green color, he swiftly dodged the attack. When he got close enough, he brought his claws up, folding his arms into an X-shape. Now close enough to strike, he brought both of them down, slashing Umbreon and sending her flipping across the field. Before she could get up, Stephen ordered Vigoroth to use hammer arm, a fighting-type move that would completely devastate Umbreon. But I knew just what to use to counter it.

"Umbreon, use detect!"

When Vigoroth was just about to bring his glowing arm down on Umbreon, she jumped up, and deftly slipped just barely out of his strike zone. Vigoroth's arm made contact with the ground, and we capitalized.

"Okay Umbreon, last resort!"

Umbreon jumped up into the air, and her entire body began to glow a brilliant white color, while her bands gave off a bright golden light, and her eyes became an intense shade of red. Vigoroth, who was still recovering from the failed attack, stared up at Umbreon with a look of utter fear on his face. Stephen shouted for him to get out of the way, but it was no use. Umbreon dropped at lightning fast speed, crashing into Vigoroth and throwing an enormous plume of dust into the air. When the cloud settled, Vigoroth had been thrown completely to the other side of the field, where he lie unconscious at Stephen's feet.

The referee shouted "Vigoroth is unable to battle! Continuing on to the final match of the Ever Grande Conference is Joe!" He lifted up the green flag in his left hand, indicating that I was the victor. I walked out to the center of the arena, with Umbreon at my side, to meet the referee. The ref raised my right hand, and the crowd began to cheer and shout. I used my other hand to wave to everyone, especially the three people in the crowd who mattered the most, but I didn't see them from where I was.

When the ref finally let go of my hand, I looked over to Stephen, who was running his hand down Vigoroth's arm, comforting him. Vigoroth smiled, then Stephen put him back into his poke ball, stood up, and began walking towards the prep room on his side of the field. I jogged off after them.

"Hey Stephen," I called out when I caught up to him in the locker room, "that was a great battle. I can tell that your pokemon have gotten a lot stronger since our last battle. I just want to say that, no matter what happened between us in the past, you're a great trainer." I held out my hand for him to shake.

He looked down at my hand, grasped it, and shook it. "Thanks Joe, it means a lot. You know, it's a shame that you and Alice split up. Its not every day that a person gets to meet a trainer as talented as you are. I'm surprised that she couldn't see that in you. Her loss, I guess." He laughed.

Thinking about Alice was the last thing I wanted to do at that moment, even though the whole reason Stephen and I were rivals was because of her. We'd been having issues since the day she found Alex asleep on top of me, and even though there was nothing going on between the two of us(in fact, she'd already gotten back with her ex-boyfriend Frank by that time), Alice could never just let it go. Her trust issues didn't get bad until the time we got to the Lavaridge town gym. When Flannery started flirting with me, and I joked back with her, Alice just couldn't take it anymore. After Petalburg, she left, saying that she was going back home to Littleroot town.

After the painful, and somewhat annoying trip down memory lane, I laughed, and replied to Stephen "Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, you should stay and watch my match tomorrow. Then when you get back to Littleroot town, tell Alice I said hi, okay?"

From behind me, I heard a voice. "Or, you could say it to me right now, Joe."

I whipped my body around, and saw the angel that I fell in love with when I first started my journey. The long, auburn hair and jean shorts hadn't changed since we'd first met, but for some reason, Alice seemed different. She stood with her legs together, and one arm behind her back, with that hand grabbing her other wrist. She was looking down at first, but then she looked up at me, and I saw the bright smile that reminded me of why I fought Stephen so hard, way back then.

"Alice," I said, almost in a whisper. "What are you doing here?"

She let out a short giggle, then answered "What, did you think that I wouldn't come to see you compete in the biggest tournament in Hoenn? Joe, I know we're not together anymore, but I do still consider you a good friend."

Good friend? I hadn't seen Alice in months, and there she was calling me a good friend. I guessed maybe she still cared, even after what happened between us. "I guess you're right, then. You remember Stephen, of course." I motioned to Stephen, who was sitting on the bench a few feet away.

She smiled, then said "Yeah, I remember. One thing I don't remember, though, is you two fighting that hard before. I know you guys had some heated battles before, but that was one for the record books. Great job, you two, I mean it. Joe, I hope you win your match with Mark tomorrow. I'd love to see you become champion."

And with that, she walked through the doorway, and out of the locker room. Stephen turned to me, and said "Awkward…." We both started laughing.

I walked out of the locker room a couple minutes later, and in the pokemon center waiting for me were my friends: Steph, Alex, and Frank. Steph had been with me from the start. She'd had her boyfriend, Ron, with her, but he revealed himself to be an undercover agent for Team Magma. Of course, they split, and after out battle in Magma's base under Mt. Chimney, I hadn't seen him again. Alex joined our group when we were in Slateport city, and was almost the whole reason for Alice breaking up with me. I didn't blame her, though. Frank actually started out as an enemy, traveling with Stephen and Robert, up until our battle in the clearing outside of Mauville city. After he helped me get my pokemon back, he was pretty much a member of the gang. Alex was the first one to see me. She jumped up out of her chair and tackle-hugged me.

"OHMIGOD, JOE THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Her arms were wrapped around my neck so tight that she was practically cutting off the circulation of blood to my head. I was beginning to get a bit light-headed, but she finally let go of me. "Wow," I said between forced breaths, "someone's a bit excited, huh?"

She laughed, then gave me another hug, this time just around my sides. "Sorry, Joe," she said apologetically. "I just got really worked up during that match, it was so exciting!"

Steph came over and gave me a hug as well. "Congratulations, Joe, that was an amazing battle. Umbreon did really good in there, as well as the others. I didn't think that Scizor would be able to perform so well against Stephen's Torkoal. I can't wait until your match tomorrow!"

Frank came up last, and gave me a handshake, pulling into a bro-hug. "Great job, man. Your pokemon did great, even at type disadvantages. But I've got to tell you something. Even though its great to take risks, I don't think you should pull any stunts with your match against Mark like you did today."

Confused, I asked "What do you mean, stunts?"

Frank shook his head. "I'm talking about bringing out pokemon with obvious type disadvantages. Using Flygon against Glalie? I know I've told you dozens of times about how Flygon takes almost quadruple damage from ice-type moves. She could've gotten seriously hurt out there. You're lucky she had the speed advantage, otherwise you'd have lost."

I laughed, then responded "Frank, don't worry about it. When it comes down to it, type advantages don't really play a huge factor in determining who wins the battle. Its all about training and dedication."

He grumbled. "It may not be a huge factor, but its big enough, Joe. I'm just saying be more careful, that's all."

"Don't worry about it, I've got you." I smiled, then looked at the others. "Now, who's ready to celebrate! Lets go get some dinner, that match took a lot out of me and the pokemon, and we're all starving!"

_The Next Day…._

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment you've all been waiting for! The final battle in this year's Ever Grande Conference is about to get under way. Fighting for the championship are two young, yet extremely talented trainers! On the red side of the field, we have Mark, from Sandbreak town!"

From the locker room, I could hear the thousands of people in attendance cheering as Mark made his way out and onto the field. I was so nervous the night before, I didn't think that I'd be able to get out there and battle. I sat there in the locker room with my hands clasped together, and my head hanging down, trying to gather the strength to get out there. Finally, I remembered who I was battling, and I remembered Umbreon, Houndoom, and all my other pokemon who'd trained for this day. If I gave up and quit then because of nerves, I would be letting all of them down. I couldn't do that, not to them, after they'd worked so hard.

As I made my way out, I could hear the announcer giving my introduction over the speaker system in the arena. When I got to my designated area, I looked across the field and saw Mark. He was standing there, confidence in his eyes. He seemed stronger, more so than he did when we fought Team Magma at the Mossdeep space center. He was ready to battle, and so was I.

"Let the battle begin!"

I took out a poke ball and tossed it. "Flygon, lets go!"

From the ball came my big, green, bug-like dragon pokemon. Mark took one look at her, then said "Hmm, a dragon type, nice choice. Lets see who's the better dragon trainer, then. Salamence, lets go!" Up on the scoreboard, below my picture, Flygon's appeared, and below Mark's picture, Salamence appeared.

From his poke ball came a huge, beast of a pokemon. Salamence's skin was blue, with a white underbelly. The areas under his neck and tail, and above his eyes were red, as well as his wings. Once outside, he let out a great roar, but Flygon wasn't distracted by it. She'd dealt with roars before. She was Houndoom's favorite training partner.

"Flygon, dragon claw!"

"Salamence, use crunch!"

Both Flygon and Salamence jumped up into the air and took flight. They sped at each other in the sky at incredible speed. Flygon's right claw began to glow a bright white color, and when she was in range she swung it at Salamence. However, Salamence countered, and bit down hard on her hand, causing her to stop and scream out in pain.

"FLYGON!" I cried out. I could feel her pain, even though I wasn't the one battling. "Knock him off with dragon pulse!"

Flygon was able to gain control of herself, and prepare her attack. She used her free hand to grab onto Salamence's head, and put her feet up against his shoulders as leverage. When she was in position, she began to charge up the bluish-purple ball of energy in her mouth.

"Salamence, get out of there!"

It was too late for Salamence to back out. Flygon unleashed her attack, firing the ball at Salamence, where it exploded in a powerful wave of energy. Salamence was sent flying back, but so was Flygon. She was too close to the attack when it hit, so she was hurt too. However, she was able to gain flight stability, which was a good sign.

When Salamence was able to stabilize, he held his position, glaring at Flygon who returned the stare.

Mark closed his eyes, and let out a small chuckle. "Joe, I can see Flygon has gotten a lot stronger. But as you know, a dragon's strength is measured by the strongest move it knows. I'll bet you don't know this one! Salamence, Draco meteor!"

I couldn't believe he didn't think that Flygon was strong. I would show him. "Flygon, fire your draco meteor right back!" When the words escaped my mouth, I could see the look of shock on Mark's face.

Both Salamence began to charge a huge amount of energy in their stomachs. There was a bright golden light coming up from their mouths, and they released a golden ball up in to the air. The balls exploded, and sent dozens of smaller blasts of energy at the other pokemon. The blasts made contact in the center of the arena, creating a huge plume of smoke. Both pokemon were still up in the air when the smoke cleared, but they'd sustained a lot of damage from the shockwave of the attack.

"Flygon, use dragon pulse!"

"Salamence, counter with dragon breath!"

Flygon blasted the blue ball of energy at Salamence, but the attack missed, opening her up for a stream of blue flames from Salamence. The attack struck Flygon and send her back. Salamence followed up with draco meteor, and flygon had no time to dodge. Dozens of golden balls of powerful energy struck flygon all over her body, sending her crashing down to the ground. Mark and Salamence finished up with hyper beam. Flygon was blasted with the intense golden beam, and knocked out cold. Her picture on the scoreboard went dark.

"Flygon, come back." When she was in her poke ball, I smiled, and said "Great work. Take a rest, Flygon." I grabbed another ball and tossed it. "Scizor, lets go!"

Scizor, my steel-and-bug powerhouse, came out onto the field, his picture appearing under Flygon's on the scoreboard. He jumped up into the air and began to hover a foot off the ground. Suddenly he kicked up the power in his wings and rose up higher in the air. There was no way he would be able to get to the height that Salamence stood at, but he could get within range to attack.

"Scizor, hit him hard with flash cannon!"

Scizor started charging up a bright silver ball in one of his claws. When it was ready, he aimed the claw at Salamence and fired a dazzling silver beam at him.

"Salamence, drop low and use fire fang!"

Just before the attack hit, Salamence dodged and dropped in the air, lowering himself to around Scizor's level. Bad mistake.

"Scizor, use agility to dodge then strike hard with bullet punch!"

Salamence flew straight at Scizor, flames trailing out of the sides of his mouth. When he opened his jaws to attack, Scizor sped out of the way, so fast he almost looked like a blur. Before Salamence could react, Scizor was up in his face, using his metal claws as fists and striking with incredible speed. Because of his special ability, technician, the attack was doing even more damage than it normally would. I could tell, since Salamence's face was twisting and contorting in pain. When Scizor finally let up, I ordered another flash cannon attack, which struck dead-on in Salamence's face, sending him in a tailspin towards the ground. If the attack didn't knock Salamence out, then it was the crash. Either way, he was unable to battle after that. Mark put him into his poke ball, and his picture on the scoreboard went dark.

He took out his next poke ball and tossed it in. "Camerupt, lets go!"

Camerupt, the pokemon that looked like a short, red camel with volcano-shaped rocks on its back, came out onto the field. Mark had evolved it from Numel, as I found out during out battle outside of Lilycove city. No matter what, this pokemon was nothing to be taken lightly, since one powerful fire-type attack could devastate Scizor, despite his high defense. It looked like it would come down to his speed.

"Scizor, get in close with agility, then use skull bash!"

"Camerupt, lava plume."

Scizor, who was still up in the sky, repositioned himself and began an angled dive towards Camerupt, with his head tucked down, ready to strike. Before I could call off the attack, Scizor was within a few feet of Camerupt, and a red-hot stream of liquid fire blasted out of one of Camerupt's volcano holes, completely washing over Scizor and dropping him to the ground. He was able to get to his feet, but he was badly burned by the attack. Mark saw this, and capitalized.

"Camerupt, finish him with eruption!"

Camerupt took a rooted stance in the ground, and it began to shake. Scizor attempted to use flash cannon, but the quaking caused him to lose focus. Suddenly, geysers of ash and lava began shooting from Camerupt's back, covering Scizor. He was able to get out, but once he did, he collapsed, incapacitated. I put him back into his ball, and his picture on the board went dark.

"Nice try, Scizor, take a break." I grabbed another poke ball, and tossed it. "Come on out Kirlia!"

Onto the field came the second pokemon I ever caught, Kirlia. She was one of my few unevolved pokemon, and the only one on my Conference team. Her picture appeared under Scizor's on the board.

A look of intrigue took over on Mark's face. "Kirlia?" he asked. "Is that the same Kirlia from our battle at Lilycove city?"

"Yeah, why?"

He laughed, then said "Joe, you're using a pokemon that isn't fully evolved? Come on, that's just a rookie mistake right there. If you want to win, you've got to use all the power you can get!"

I shook my head. "You're wrong!" I responded. "Its not power that wins our battles, its skill. Kirlia's trained just as hard as all my other pokemon, even my fully evolved ones. She's one of my best, and she won't lose to you! Isn't that right, Kirlia?"

I looked down at her. She looked back up at me, smiled, and said "Kirlia!"

I smiled back at her, then gave the order. "Okay Kirlia, lets show him how hard you've trained. Start it with future sight!"

Mark shook his head. "Rookie. Camerupt, blast her with stone edge!"

Camerupt stomped on the ground, kicking up half a dozen sharp rocks, and sent them flying at Kirlia. She used teleport to dodge the attack, then she sent a beam of purple thunder up into the air, where it disappeared.

"Kirlia, now use psybeam!"

"Camerupt, counter with lava plume!"

Kirlia used her most powerful move, psybeam. It was the first attack I'd ever seen her use, and it was instrumental in my wins at the Dewford town and Petalburg city gyms. She charged up the beam in front of her face, then blasted it at Camerupt. In turn, Camerupt launched another stream of liquid fire. The two attacks came to a head in the center of the field, connecting and pushing against each other as both pokemon began to put every ounce of power in their bodies to come out on top. In the end, Kirlia's psybeam forced its way through, and struck Camerupt hard, sending it flying back and crashing into the arena wall behind Mark.

Camerupt slowly got to her feet, but by the time he did, Kirlia sent another psybeam blast at him, making him drop into a sitting position, then over onto his side, finishing the battle. Mark put him into his ball, and his picture on the board went dark.

Next up was Medicham. Kirlia made short work of it, with a shadow ball shot straight to the gut knocking it down, and the future sight attack from earlier delivering the final blow. Just as soon as his picture was up, it went dark.

We'd eliminated half of Mark's team, but now came the hard part. For one, I knew that somewhere in his final three stood Poliwrath, the pokemon that devastated Umbreon in our first battle. Second, I had a powerful hunch that his Rapidash would be used, as well. I'd only seen it in battle once, against Team Magma, but even that one time, it left an impression that I'll never forget. Finally, there was his sixth pokemon. I had no idea what it would be, but if he hadn't used it yet, there was a reason he was saving it, and that worried me. Sure enough, though, the next picture on the board was Rapidash.

His unicorn-esque pokemon was like something out of a fairy tale. Pure white hair, an insanely powerful horn, and flaming mane and tail were what defined this amazingly beautiful beast. Rapidash was a magnificent, honorable pokemon, but it was also one of the strongest and fastest pokemon I'd ever seen. I knew I had to be careful.

"Kirlia, use double team, then magical leaf!"

"Rapidash, use fire spin all around you to flush out the real one!"

Kirlia began to split: first into two, then four, then eight, and before I knew it there were enough of her to completely surround Rapidash. But I'd underestimated her abilities. She opened up her mouth, and released a spiral of flames, which quickly surrounded her, more or less nullifying the magical leaf attack. Once the threat had been averted, Rapidash used her power to spread out the circle of flames, extending out and striking each and every copy of Kirlia, including the real one, knocking her to the ground with a burn on her right hand.

"Great job Rapidash!" shouted Mark. "Now use mega horn!"

Rapidash tucked her head down and began charging at Kirlia, who was down on one knee, holding her hand in pain. The horn on Rapidash' head began to glow a hot white, and I shouted to Kirlia "Get out of there, now! Use teleport!"

It was too late. When Kirlia looked up to see what was happening, Rapidash lifted her head, striking with that overpowered horn of hers, and launching Kirlia up into the air. While she was up there, Rapidash used fire spin again, enveloping Kirlia in flames as she fell to the ground. Just before she landed, I jumped out and caught her in my arms.

Her face was twisted into a painful grimace, and I placed my hand on the side of her head to comfort her. She smiled, and her eyes let out a quick purple glow. Suddenly, a scorch mark appeared on Rapidash' left side, and he knelt down and shuddered in pain. She'd used her synchronize ability to give Rapidash a burn, just like he'd given her. I smiled, then put her back into her poke ball, her picture on the board going dark.

"Great job Kirlia, you were amazing. Take a rest, okay?" Next was one of my newest, but physically strongest pokemon. "Hitmonlee, lets go!"

Out next came Hitmonlee, my only pure fighting-type pokemon. I'd gotten him just recently, from Rito, the leader of the Dewford town gym. It was a gift from him, for getting into the Ever Grande conference. He was just barely shorter than Alex, but only but a couple of inches. He was all brown on his body, hands, and feet, and his legs and arms were a beige color. Hitmonlee's best attacks were his kicks, and I decided to start off quick and hard with them. "Hitmonlee, use hi jump kick!"

Hitmonlee got off to a running start, then jumped up into the air, and aimed his body so that he would come down at an angle above Rapidash. He tucked in his legs so that he could kick them out when he got close enough. But it wouldn't matter. Rapidash dodged, and Hitmonlee crashed, taking damage from the missed attack. Before he could recover, Rapidash knocked him back twenty feet with fire blast, then closed the distance and put him down with flare blitz. Hitmonlee tried to get up, but there was no use, he was beaten, before he could even get off another attack. I put him back into his poke ball, his picture going dark on the board. I was down to my last two pokemon. They were, without a doubt, however, my strongest.

"Houndoom, lets do this!" His picture came up on the board, and I knew that he wouldn't fail me. When I found him, he was still a Houndour, under the command of a brutal and heartless trainer named Eddie. Houndour was in the woods outside of Rustboro city, critically injured and barely able to move on his own. Steph and I took him to the pokemon center, where he was healed. After a battle with his owner, which Houndour was a big part of winning, he became mine, and quickly became fiercely loyal, and one of my most powerful pokemon, second only to Umbreon.

As soon as Houndoom's feet touched the ground, he released a stone-shattering roar, which echoed around the arena, causing the crowd to fall silent for a couple seconds, then erupt in their own roars of excitement. Rapidash, already injured from the burn sustained by Kirlia, became even more demoralized by Houndoom's roar. His face took on a look of worry and fear, and he backed up a couple steps. Mark didn't like this one bit.

"Rapidash, get back in there! Hit Houndoom with fire blast!"

"Houndoom, counter with blast burn!"

Rapidash let out a huge burst of flames, which made its way towards Houndoom. Houndoom, in turn, exhaled four streams of flame. One in the center, and three around the sides, spiraling around the center stream. The two attacks barely missed contact with each other, and instead headed straight for their intended targets. Both moves hit, but did almost no damage at all. Instead, both pokemon seemed even stronger. This time, Houndoom ran in to use fire fang, while Rapidash charged at him to use flame wheel. They both struck, but again neither attack had any effect. Finally, it hit me. Both pokemon had the flash fire ability. Any fire-type moves used against them would just increase their power, and do no damage at all.

Mark seemed to understand this too. "Joe, it looks like it'll be a battle of physical strength this time, then! Rapidash, use stomp!"

Rapidash reared up in front of Houndoom, and brought his front hooves down, stomping ruthlessly on Houndoom's body.

"Houndoom, blast it off with dark pulse!"

Houndoom opened up his mouth, and released a purple and black ball of energy that struck Rapidash, sending him flying back on his side.

"Great work! Now get in close and use crunch!"

Before Rapidash could get to his feet, Houndoom rocketed at him, jumped into the air, and came down on Rapidash, closing his immensely powerful jaws around his neck. Rapidash started flailing and crying out in pain, trying to shake itself loose from Houndoom's attack. When he finally got loose, Houndoom blasted him with dark pulse, effectively knocking him unconscious and ending the battle. Rapidash' picture on the screen went dark. Below it appeared Poliwrath's picture.

"Poli, WRAATH!"

He looked angry. "Poliwrath," shouted Mark, "put Houndoom out with water pulse!"

"Houndoom!" I called out, "fire back with flamethrower!"

Houndoom blasted a jet of flames from his mouth, but they were put out by the dozens of rings of water that came from the spiral on Poliwrath's stomach. The attack struck Houndoom, not only causing heavy damage, but also confusing him as well.

"Poliwrath, finish this with dynamic punch!"

"Houndoom, snap out of it!"

It was too late. Poliwrath closed the distance between them quickly, and delivered a super powered punch straight to Houndoom's jaw, lifting him ten feet up in the air. Next, Poliwrath jumped in the air and knocked Houndoom down to the ground with brick break. Finally, while he was still in the air, Poliwrath used hydro pump, unleashing a torrent of water down upon Houndoom, which did incredible damage to him. He tried to get up, but fell back down. I called him back to his ball, and his picture went dark. I was down to my last pokemon. My last, but my best.

"Umbreon, GO!"


	2. Prologue Pt2

This was is. I knew Umbreon was at a type disadvantage, but it was up to her to win the Ever Grande Conference. She was my first pokemon, and my strongest by far. At that point, I wished that the battle was taking place at night. Umbreon's power would've been at full strength. But I guess this would be the true test of her abilities.

"Umbreon, shadow ball!"

"Poliwrath, bubble beam!"

Umbreon began charging a dark ball of energy in front of her golden ring on her forehead, and Poliwrath began sucking back air. Both of them released their attacks at the same time. Poliwrath's high-powered bubble attack struck the ball of energy put out by Umbreon in the center of the field. The two attacks exploded and kicked up a plume of dust from the ground. When the dust settled, Umbreon was on the attack. She used agility to get up close and personal with Poliwrath, then hidden power, which ended up turning into an electric-type attack, doing heavy damage and knocking him to his knees.

"Alright Umbreon!" I shouted. "Great work, now use dark pulse!"

Mark had other plans. "Poliwrath, submission!"

Before Umbreon could launch her attack, Poliwrath grabbed her, pulled her close, and wrapped one of his thick arms around her abdomen and squeezing with all his might. Umbreon was clearly in pain, so I racked my mind quickly to think of a way to get her out of there. Finally, I got it.

"Umbreon, use toxic!"

Umbreon squeezed shut her eyes, then unleashed a toxic spray of purple gas from the golden bands and rings on her body. Poliwrath inhaled the gas, and suddenly stricken with poison, he released Umbreon, who made no hesitation in creating distance between the two. Poliwrath began to succumb to the poison, falling down to one knee, and holding himself up with one hand on the ground.

Mark put his hand in a fist and shouted "Poliwrath, refresh!"

Poliwrath seemed to take every ounce of energy in his body and focus it. He began to glow a whitish-silver color, and he started to stand up slowly. When he got to his feet, the glow faded away, and he looked as if he had never been poisoned at all.

Mark put a devious smirk on his face, then calmly said "Okay Poliwrath, use ice beam. If you miss, keep firing until you hit her!"

Poliwrath began to shoot beams of cool blue ice from the swirl on his belly. The beam barely missed Umbreon as she dodged swiftly, but shards of ice grew out of where it hit the ground. He launched another attack, this time coming very close to hitting her, but she dodged at the last second.

"Umbreon, use agility to dodge his attacks!"

Whenever Poliwrath shot another beam, Umbreon would get out of the way with incredible speed. Eventually, he began to get frustrated, and rushed in to attack her with brick break. When he got close enough to strike, Umbreon used detect to deftly maneuver her way out from under him. From behind, she blasted him with another shot of her electric-type hidden power, knocking him to one knee again. As he got up, she quickly moved away from him.

"Poliwrath, use hypnosis!"

Umbreon began to charge to use quick attack, but as she did his eyes began to glow a faint blue, and the swirl on his belly began to move around in a circle. Umbreon stopped moving, entranced by the movement, and she soundly fell asleep, dropping there on the field.

"Great work Poliwrath!" said Mark with a laugh. "Now get in there and use dynamic punch!"

As Poliwrath began to charge at Umbreon, his fist began to glow a whitish-silver color, and started to produce a trail of silver energy behind it. Umbreon was about to be taken out, and we were going to lose. I couldn't let that happen, not after she'd trained and practiced so hard for this. I finally though of what to do.

"Umbreon, use sleep talk!"

As Umbreon lay there, Poliwrath continued his charge, finally coming to within feet of her. He brought his fist down, striking the ground where Umbreon had been laying, just before sleep talk allowed her to use detect and move out of the way. Still asleep, Umbreon blasted Poliwrath with shadow ball, knocking him backwards, but not doing significant damage.

"Poliwrath, she's still asleep!" cried out Mark. "Use your strength to win it! Belly drum, go!"

Poliwrath began to pound its opened hands against is stomach, creating a loud percussive sound that echoed around the arena. When he was finished, he seemed reinvigorated, stronger somehow. The sound eventually reached Umbreon's ears, and woke her up. When she saw Poliwrath dashing towards her for another dynamic punch, she quickly dodged out of the way.

Now that Poliwrath's attacking power had been increased dramatically, I knew that Umbreon would have nearly no chance of beating him in a physical match up, but there was one move she knew that might have the strength to do it.

"Umbreon, use last resort!"

Umbreon's entire body started to glow a hot white color. Her bands and rings began to pulsate so violently that the only thing I could think of that would make them that intense is the moonlight. Her eyes flared up, and gave off an intense red light, making her seem unbeatable. That would have to do it. She charged at Poliwrath. He swung his massive fist in another dynamic punch, but missed, since Umbreon jumped up and tackled him directly to the belly, knocking the wind out of him. He dropped to his knees and held himself up with one hand, while using the other to hold his stomach. Umbreon's glow faded away, and she went back to her normal colors.

"Umbreon, that was amazing!" I cried out to her. She turned to me, smiling, and cried out "Bree!" I smiled back at her, then said "Lets finish this! Use dark pulse one last time!"

Umbreon nodded, then took a firm stance, opened up her mouth, then blasted a ball of purple and black energy at Poliwrath. He didn't even try to move. Belly drum had done significant damage to his health, and that last attack put him on the brink. He'd given up. The ball struck him with a huge explosion that sent him flying backwards, roll-skidding across the ground, and coming to a stop at Mark's feet.

Mark put Poliwrath into his poke ball, causing his picture on the board to go dark. This was it, his last pokemon. The final match in the Hoenn league championships, fought between my Umbreon, and whatever his last pokemon would be. But then a thought hit me. Why didn't he use Poliwrath as his last pokemon? It was clearly his strongest, so why didn't he save it for the very final battle? My question was answered when he tossed out his sixth and final pokemon.

"Toxicroak, come out! Show this kid why we're the best!"

Out from the ball came a short, frog-like pokemon, that also looked a lot like a human. It was mostly blue colored, but there were black marking around its eyes, and joints. Its most noticeable feature, though, were the orange claw-like things that jutted out from between two of its fingers, and the big orange bubble under its chin, that seemed to expand and contract whenever it breathed. One look at this pokemon, and I could tell that it wasn't from Hoenn, or anywhere near here for that matter. It looked completely alien.

"What the hell is that!" I shouted in surprise.

Mark laughed and smirked confidently. "It's a Toxicroak. They're from the Sinnoh region. I got it from my cousin, who's living there studying pokemon in the Great Marsh in Pastoria city."

Confused, I looked at Umbreon, who stared back at me with a confident look in her eyes. I'd never been to the Sinnoh region, but I'd heard stories about the exotic and powerful pokemon living there. I'd never heard of or seen a Toxicroak before, but that didn't matter at all. I had faith in Umbreon, and I knew that she could handle this pokemon, whatever it threw at her!

"Umbreon, you ready to do this!" She smiled. "Bree, On!"

"Okay, lets go then. Use agility to get close, then hit it with pursuit!"

Mark folded his arms and chuckled in amusement. "Toxicroak, use detect, then focus blast."

Umbreon rocketed towards Toxicroak, who just stood there in the same position. When she jumped to attack, he swiftly moved off to the left, avoiding the attack. His hand started to glow a bright orange, and while Umbreon was vulnerable, he struck her hard in the side with a blast of energy, knocking her back fifteen feet. As she got up to her feet, he descended upon her quickly, his claw glowing a bright purple, and struck her with poison jab, knocking her back down.

"Umbreon, use detect to dodge his next move!"

"Toxicroak, use mind reader, then cross chop!"

Toxicroak raised his arms up into the air, glowing white with energy. Umbreon used detect to quickly escape to the side, but Toxicroak knew where she was going to move, and brought his hands down in an X-shape, knocking her back ten feet. She tried to get up, and slowly got to her feet. By the time she was up, though, Toxicroak was on her again, this time with focus punch. He knocked her flying through the air, angled towards the concrete wall behind me. I ran to where she was moving, and jumped into the air to catch her. As she made contact with me, she crashed into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I fell to the ground, her in my arms, unconscious.

I looked at her through squinted eyes. "Umbreon," I forced out, "are you alright?"

She squinted her own eyes open, shuddered in pain, then smiled at me and forced out "Breeh…" I stood up through the pain, Umbreon still in my arms. I looked up at the board, and Umbreon's picture went dark. We'd lost.

On the board, the picture of Mark's face grew, and the pictures of his pokemon were repositioned around it. Huge clouds of confetti shot out from hidden confetti cannons around the arena, and the crowd began to cheer and shout so loud, that I could barely hear myself think. I turned around and began to walk towards the locker room entrance, when I heard someone calling my name.

"JOE!"

I turned around, and Mark was standing behind me. He held out his hand for me to shake, so I shifted Umbreon's weight into my left arm and shook with my right hand.

"That was a great battle," he said with a smile. "I've gotta say, your pokemon have gotten a lot stronger since our last battle. For a second there, I bet you thought you'd won it, huh?"

I laughed, then replied "No, but I had to hope, didn't I? Anyways, your pokemon were great out there. Especially that Toxicroak. I guess I underestimated it, and we paid the price for that."

"Yeah, I guess you did," he said coolly. After a quick glance behind him, he shook my hand again, then said "Joe, I gotta get over there for the victory celebration. You keep working with those pokemon, and someday maybe you'll be good enough to beat me. See you later, kid." Before I could say thank you, he turned around and walked off, hands in his pockets. Deciding it was best to get my pokemon healed up, I headed straight for the pokemon center.

While my pokemon were being healed, I saw my friends come through the door. Steph, Alex, and Frank rushed to sit beside me in the waiting area. Then came the questions.

"Joe, are you okay? How are your pokemon? Are you sad that you lost? What are you going to do next?"

I sat there, answering their questions and accepting their condolences and congratulations for about an hour and a half, until my pokemon were healed up. While everyone else went to the parties and things that were happening, I didn't. Instead, I would take my pokemon outside. I needed to talk to professor Birch, then to my pokemon.

On the video-phones inside the pokemon center, I called up professor Birch. When he answered, he was out of breath, and his hair and coat were even more disheveled than I remember them being when he goes out.

"Professor," I asked, "are you alright?"

He laughed, then said "Of course, of course I'm alright Joe. I just had a bit of a wild expedition in the Petalburg woods right now, that's all. How are you, is everything alright? I heard from Brandon and Julian about your match today, they said you did excellent, but you lost in the end."

I smiled, then said "Yeah, I lost. I'm alright though, professor. My pokemon gave it everything they had, and that's all that matters to me. Listen, I need to ask you a favor, but I'll admit it won't be easy."

He nodded his head, and I continued.

Later, after the call, I went outside and brought out all of my pokemon. After they each had their fill of pokemon food, I had them sit down so I could talk to them.

"Okay guys," I started. "We may have lost today, but that doesn't change the fact that you all did great out there. I'm so proud of each and every one of you. You tried your hardest and gave it your all, even when you were badly hurt." I looked at Flygon, who was staring at me intently.

"Flygon, you did great out there today. The only thing I need from you is to work extra hard on your dragon-type attacks, especially Draco meteor. I have a feeling that someday, you'll have the most powerful Draco meteor around, and you'll have no problems beating any other pokemon with that move, okay?"

Flygon smiled at me and started making cries and calls. Next, I looked at Scizor.

"Scizor, nice work today. I think you might be the first bug-type pokemon to take out a dragon-type pokemon. That's just amazing, and I'm really happy that you're on my team. I need you to work on your speed. When you're so fast, that your opponent can't even see you coming in for an attack, you don't have to worry about losing a battle ever again, especially against super-effective attacks."

Scizor nodded, then clanked its massive claws open and shut. "Scizor, Sciz!"

It went on like this until I'd complemented and given advice to each of my pokemon. Finally, I'd come to the hard part of what I had to say to them.

"You guys, I love you all, and I'm so proud of each and every one of you. You don't know how glad I am that I can call you my pokemon. Which makes it difficult for me to tell you that I have to leave all of you except for Umbreon at professor Birch's lab until I return from Sinnoh."

Each and every one of them started crying out in protest. I cut them off, and said "Listen, you're all going to be under the care of professor Birch, helping him out and training on your own. You'll have the power to be free, and not in your poke balls all the time. You'll be able to roam free on his land, and train and practice with the pokemon around there. I want to take you all with me, but I want to be able to start fresh, with Umbreon as my lead pokemon. She was my first, my starter, I need to take her with me, but I have to leave the rest of you with professor Birch. I still love you all, you have no idea how much I love you all, please understand me."

They were quiet for a few seconds. I felt tears slowly sliding down my face, and I could see them welling up in some of my pokemon's eyes, especially Houndoom and Kirlia. Umbreon, feeling bad for her friends, started talking to them. I couldn't understand what she was saying, but it sounded like she was consoling them, and telling them about my decision, and how it was affecting her as well. After she was done, they all nodded, then came over to me. Houndoom jumped on me, knocking me down, and he began to lick my face lovingly. I felt the rest of my pokemon coming around me, crying out and hugging me. Flygon, too tall to come down to our level, simply bend her neck down and rubbed her face against mine.

When they were done, we all played together for a few hours, until the others returned from the festivities. I told them all about my plan. While they didn't think it was a good idea for me to leave my pokemon behind, I convinced them that it was in both their and my best interests.

The next morning, we all left for Slateport city, since it had the ship that would take me to the port near Sandgem town, where I would meet professor Rowan, the leading pokemon scientist in Sinnoh. We all flew. I had my Flygon, and the others used Frank's pokemon: his Fearow, and his two Pidgeot. At the pokemon center in Slateport city, I used one of the machines to transfer all of my pokemon, except for Umbreon, to professor Birch's lab in Littleroot town after our goodbyes. Once they were gone, next came my friends.

First was Alex and Frank. They were both sad to see me go, but happy that I was about to go on another journey.

"Joe, its hard to believe that a few months ago, we met up here in Slateport city, and now we're splitting up," Alex said through tear-filled eyes. "Good luck over there in Sinnoh. I hope you catch a lot of cool pokemon, and meet really awesome people. Have loads of fun for me, okay?"

I smiled at her, then said "Sure thing, Alex. I'm definitely going to miss you while I'm over there."

I turned to Frank. "Frank, buddy, I know we didn't really get off on the right foot, but you did help me rescue my pokemon when Stephen stole them. That was enough for you to earn my respect, and you've never let me down. Thanks, man." I held my hand out for him to shake, and he did.

"You're welcome," he replied. "Stay safe over there. If you ever need advice, help taking down a gym leader, or something like that, don't hesitate to call me up. I'm always here and willing to help you out whenever you need it, buddy."

I turned to say goodbye to Steph, but she was nowhere to be found! I looked around for her, and suddenly saw her running through the pokemon center doors, a small piece of paper in her hands.

"Whats that?" I asked her.

Between struggled breaths, she replied "it's a ticket to get on the boat. I'm going with you, Joe!"

Brimming with shock and joy, I gripped her in a tight hug and spun her around. "Steph, that's awesome! I can't believe you're coming with me, this is so cool!"

"Put me down!" she said in a loud whisper. "I can hardly breathe!"

I let go of her, and she inhaled heavily. "Best friends stick together, right? I couldn't let you go on your own, so I decided to get a ticket and go with you. Besides, someone's got to keep you out of trouble, right?"

I laughed, then nodded. The four of us made our way to the ship. Steph and I got on, and immediately went to the side to wave goodbye to Alex and Frank, who were standing there on the pier with their pokemon, waving and shouting goodbye to us.

Suddenly, I turned to Steph, and she turned to me. We both smiled, and at the same time, we said "We're going to Sinnoh."


	3. Amy and Riolu

The smell of the sea at dawn was invading my nostrils like no other scent I'd encountered in my life. Standing on the deck, leaning against the railing, I could see the outline of mountains far in the distance. We were almost to Sinnoh. I couldn't wait.

Steph and I had left from Hoenn a couple days ago. The boat we were on was huge, and full of trainers primed and ready to show off their battling skills. Speaking of which, at that moment I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turned around to come face to face with a girl who was just barely shorter than I was. She had blonde hair that fell just below her shoulders, black jeans, and a green zip-up jacket that was halfway unzipped, revealing a black vest and white shirt underneath.

"Hi, I'm Amy," she said, holding out her hand. I shook it.

"Hi Amy, I'm Joe." I replied.

She looked down at her feet, moving them nervously, then said "So, umm, My sister wanted me to come over here and ask you if you'd battle with her. She said that she saw you battling last night, and she wanted to challenge you, but she didn't want to come over here and ask you herself.

"Sure thing Amy," I said with a smile. "I'd love to battle her. I've only got one pokemon, though, is that okay?"

She nodded. "Okay, thanks! Lets to go the battle deck, okay? She's waiting up there."

I followed her up the stairs to the top deck, where the wood had been painted in the form of a battle arena. I looked around, and saw a girl of about fourteen years old, with short black hair, wearing a pink and blue track outfit. As Amy and I walked over to her, she stood up and came over to us.

"Hi," she cheerfully exclaimed. "I'm Jenni, I can see you've met my sister, Amy." She looked at her with a somewhat frustrated expression. "I thought I told you to stop going around looking for people to battle me? I know you want to see more battles before you get your starter pokemon, but this is just ridiculous, Amy."

Amy looked away shyly, and I raised my hands up and smiled. "Don't worry, Jenni, if you don't want to battle, that's okay. I was about to head down to breakfast, anyways."

She looked me up and down once, then smiled. "Well, I guess since you're already up here… Hey, Ref!" She turned to the referee, who was sitting in the ref's box on the side of the battlefield. "Do you mind calling a quick match?" He nodded, then stood up.

Laughing, I said "Well Jenni, I've only got one pokemon with me right now, but she's no doubt my best!"

She smiled, and replied "I guess we'll see then. I didn't catch your name, what is it?"

"Its Joe."

We split up and walked over to our specified boxes, and the ref began. "This match will be a one on one battle. The trainer who's pokemon is able to incapacitate their opponent first will be the winner. Begin!"

I took out Umbreon's ball and tossed it. "Umbreon, lets get going!"

Jenni tossed out her poke ball, and shouted "Okay Glaceon, get ready for battle!"

From her poke ball came a pokemon that bore a tremendous resemblance to Umbreon. Glaceon was just barely shorter than Umbreon, but it looked just as tough. Its body was covered in blue fur, with darker patches on its back, tail, and paws. Two long clumps of hair drooped down from its brow to just above its knees.

Surprised, I asked "Whoa, what is that pokemon!"

Jenni smiled, and said "Its called a Glaceon. Unlike other Eevee-loutions, they're only found in the Sinnoh region, since they can only be evolved into on Route 217. But enough chit-chat, lets start it off! Glaceon, use icy wind on Umbreon, lets go!"

"Umbreon, dodge and launch a shadow ball!"

Glaceon commanded a breeze and forced the air into a frozen burst of wind, directing it at Umbreon. She jumped out of the way just in time, and launched a ball of purple and black energy at Glaceon. Glaceon countered the attack with ice shard, negating both attacks at the last second.

"Hmm," muttered Jenni. "I can see Umbreon's a fast one. We'll just have to work that much harder then! Glaceon, get in close with quick attack and use ice fang!"

"Umbreon, use detect then counter with faint attack!"

Glaceon dashed at Umbreon with break-neck speed, closing the distance between them in two seconds. Umbreon, however, dodged Glaceon's blue-glowing fangs, then struck hard at point-blank range, knocking Glaceon skidding on her feet.

"Great work Umbreon! Use mean look!"

Umbreon started glaring at Glaceon, who began to cower in fear once their eyes made contact.

Worried, Jenni shouted "Glaceon, come on! Don't let her intimidate you, fight back with ice beam!"

Umbreon dodged the attack swiftly, then fired back with dark pulse. Dozens of small, black and purple spheres went flying at Glaceon, with at least half of them making contact with the target. Glaceon fell back a couple feet, but got back up, albeit with a bit of a struggle.

"I can see your Glaceon is tough," I said sincerely, "but Umbreon's just a little bit tougher. Use quick attack, now!"

"Glaceon, use hail!"

From out of nowhere, a small cloud appeared above us, and a snowstorm kicked up all around the top deck of the boat. Umbreon was aimed directly at Glaceon, but for some reason the attack missed! Glaceon was standing a whole two feet away from Umbreon, and in her confusion, she was hit with an ice shard.

"Huh!" I exclaimed. "What was that? Her attack was aimed dead-on!"

Jenni laughed, then answered "That's Glaceon's special ability, snow cloak. It makes her harder to hit during snowstorms. Now, Glaceon, finish this with ice fang!"

Before Umbreon could dodge the attack, Glaceon was right on top of her, fangs glowing a bright blue color. Glaceon bit hard, and when Umbreon shook him off, he fired back with an ice shard, knocking Umbreon out cold, literally.

"Umbreon is unable to battle!" shouted the referee. "The winners are Jenni and Glaceon!"

The snowstorm dissipated, and I rushed out to Umbreon, picking her up in my arms. "Umbreon, are you okay?"

She opened her eyes, and cried out "Bree! Breh, on!"

I smiled at her. "Okay, great work, Umbreon. Take a nice break, and I'll get you to the pokemon center on here, alright?" I put her back into her poke ball, stood up, and walked over to Jenni, who'd put Glaceon back into his ball after a nice thank you, and was now by Amy.

"Hey, Jenni, that was a great battle, I guess I shouldn't have underestimated your Glaceon like that."

She gave a wide smile, and cheered "No worries, Umbreon did amazing herself. You must be a really good trainer to have a pokemon that powerful, Joe."

I laughed lightly, and rubbed the back of my head. "Well, you can't be the Ever Grande Conference runner-up without being pretty strong, I guess."

"Huh?" Jenni looked confused, then her facial expression turned to one of surprise. "Oh! I knew I recognized you from somewhere! I saw your match against Mark on TV! Wow, I never thought I'd get to meet a trainer as strong as you!"

"Well, I'm not that strong, I did lose that battle. But that was just because I hadn't trained with my pokemon hard enough. They themselves were great, I just wasn't a good enough trainer. But I've learned from my mistakes, and I plan on entering the Sinnoh league with a better understanding on how to train my pokemon."

She looked intrigued. "Oh, so you plan on entering the Sinnoh league? Maybe you can help out my sister, Amy. You see, we're going back home from our little vacation in Hoenn, and she's going to be getting her first pokemon from professor Rowan in Sandgem town. I've got some business to take care of in Canalave city, so I can't take her myself. She was going to travel by herself, but now that I know how experience of a trainer you are, would you be okay with accompanying her there for me?"

I considered it. "Actually, I'm traveling with a friend of mine from back home. I've got to ask her if she's okay with it, but so far, it's a yes. Amy, how does that sound to you?"

She looked up with a wide smile on her face. "Sounds great!"

From behind me, I heard someone shout "Joe!"

I turned around and saw Steph coming up the stairs. She was still wearing her pajamas, which told me that she must have just gotten out of bed. "Joe, how did I know I'd find you up here? Come on, lets get some breakfast before we get to port." She noticed Jenni and Amy standing behind me, then asked "Who are your new friends?"

I introduced them all, and the four of us headed first to the pokemon center, then to breakfast. After awhile swapping stories, I asked Steph if she was okay with Amy traveling with us to Sandgem town, and she agreed to it. A few hours later, we made landfall, and split up with Jenni to make our way to Sandgem town, which was a couple miles to the north of the port.

About halfway there, we heard a noise in the woods to our right.

"Whats that?" I asked rhetorically.

The three of us looked out into the woods, and saw a small, blue, dog-like pokemon running from a trainer. It looked like it had a black mask around its eyes, but it must have been fur. The trainer was obviously trying to capture it, and it was giving him a run for his money.

"I guess we should keep going," I said. Steph and Amy agreed.

About an hour later, we arrived in Sandgem town. It wasn't very large, but it was bigger than Fresno was, that's for sure. Steph decided to find the poke mart to get us a few supplies while Amy and I looked for the lab. After asking around a bit, we found our way to professor Rowan's lab.

On the outside, it looked like a normal, large building. Once we got inside, however, it was obvious that it was a place of science and research. We were greeted by one of professor Rowan's aides, a tall man with glasses in a white lab coat.

"Hi, I'm John, I work for professor Rowan." He looked down at Amy, who, although shy, looked back at him. "You must be Amy, right? Come this way, the professor is out doing a bit of fieldwork, but he should be back in a couple minutes. In the meantime, he's asked me to introduce you to the pokemon that you'll be starting with. You'll have to choose one of them, and it'll be your beginning pokemon."

"Umm, okay," she replied.

The aide led us to a large, domed greenhouse outside. Inside the greenhouse were dozens of different kinds of plants and trees. Running around the place were a bunch of pokemon that I'd never seen before. In the bushes and on the roots of the trees were small, green, turtle like pokemon. Up in the trees, and scurrying around the ground were little monkey-like pokemon, with flames for tails. In a pond nearby, there swam blue penguin-like pokemon.

The aide turned to Amy, and said "Okay, these are the starter pokemon for the Sinnoh region. Over there are Chimchar, our fire type," he motioned to the monkey pokemon. "There, in the bushes, are Turtwig, our grass type," he pointed to the turtle pokemon. "And there, in the pond, are Piplup, our water type." He motioned towards the penguin pokemon. "I suggest you get to know each type of them personally, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask me, okay?"

Amy nodded. "Umm, okay sir. Joe, can you help me with them? I'm a bit nervous around pokemon. I mean, I love them, but I don't really know how to talk to one, you know?"

I smiled at her. "Sure thing, Amy. I'll help you out. I've been around enough to know how. I'll help you become friends with one of them, no doubt!"

She got a bright look in her eyes, then shouted "Alright! I'm gonna get a pokemon!"

First, we walked over to a Turtwig. Amy knelt down beside one, and it looked up at her in confusion. "Hi Turtwig," she said quietly. "I'm, umm, Amy. Do you want to come with me?" She reached her hand out to it, and out of fear, it bit her and ran away.

"Ouch!" she cried out. "Why did it do that?"

I knelt down beside her, and took a small bit of pokemon food from my bag. "Amy, you can't just go up to a pokemon and touch it. You've got to build up to that. My recommendation, start off with a little snack." I laid out a couple bits of pokemon food on the ground. The same Turtwig came out of the bush it was hiding in and sniffed the food, then ate it.

"Now, I think that should be good," I said. "Try to pet him now."

She reached out to Turtwig carefully, but it ran away again. "Aww, I guess maybe a Turtwig isn't right for me." She looked down at the ground with a sad look in her eyes.

I reached out and rubbed her shoulder gently. "Don't worry, Amy. Not every pokemon is right for every trainer. You've got to find the one that reacts to you in a positive way. I'm sure you'll find that one."

She smiled. "Okay, now lets try a Piplup."

We walked over to the pond. I laid out a few bits of pokemon food, and a Piplup jumped out of the water, slowly walking over to the pokemon food. It ate a few, but when Amy reached out to touch it, it jumped back into the water, splashing her.

"Maybe not a Piplup, either?" I asked.

"Yeah, maybe," she replied with a sad frown.

Next were the Chimchar. The tiny little monkeys looked so happy, swinging from branch to branch, all over the place. I gave Amy some pokemon food, and before she even put it down, one of the Chimchar was out of the tree and on her shoulders.

"Char, Chimchar!"

"Huh? Hi Chimchar." she said, cautiously. "Umm, would you like some pokemon food?"

She opened up her hand, and the Chimchar crawled down her arm, grabbing the food and running off into a bush.

"Aww," she whined. "I guess I'm not right for any of them. Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a trainer, none of the pokemon like me."

As she pouted, I said "Umm, Amy, I wouldn't give up so soon. Check it out."

She looked up, and the same Chimchar was now sitting in front of her, looking up at her with its cute little face, smiling.

"Umm, would you like some more, Chimchar?"

"Char, Chimchar!" it jumped up and down as I handed Amy some more pokemon food. She knelt down, and the Chimchar started eating the food right out of her hand. When he was done, he jumped up and began to hang off her neck, hugging her tightly.

"Oh," exclaimed Amy. "Umm, I guess this means that you want to be my pokemon then, Chimchar?"

He squealed affectionately, let go of her, and began jumping up and down on the ground.

"Haha, okay then!" said the aide from behind us. "It seems like you've found your pokemon." He took out a poke ball and handed it to Amy. "Now, just press this button on the front, and touch it to Chimchar, and he'll be yours to take."

She did so, and Chimchar entered the ball with no struggle. Amy laughed, then said "Alright, I've got a pokemon!"

"Great job, Amy!" I exclaimed. "Congratulations! Now you're officially a pokemon trainer. I hope you-"

I was interrupted by Steph bursting into the greenhouse with another aide. "Joe, Joe! Come quick! That trainer and the little blue pokemon from earlier are outside the lab, and he's really beating it bad!"

Quickly putting aside the joy of Amy's situation, the three of us, along with the two aides, rushed outside. Sure enough, about twenty feet from the lab, that trainer and his pokemon, a freaky-looking purple and beige skunk pokemon, were fighting with that little blue pokemon from before. The blue one looked seriously worn down. It was down to one knee, and was breathing quite heavily.

The trainer gave out another order. "Stunky, use fury swipes!"

The pokemon, a Stunky, jumped at the little blue pokemon, its claws glowing a hot white color. The blue pokemon dodged the attack, but just barely, and began running in our direction. It came up to me, and hid behind my legs, shaking in fear and falling in pain.

The trainer and his pokemon ran over to us, and they looked pissed off. "Hey!" he shouted. "Get out of my way! That Riolu is mine!"

Suddenly, I heard a voice in my head. _Don't listen to him. I don't belong to him, he's a bad, bad man! Please, help me!_

I looked down at the little blue pokemon, Riolu, and it hit me that Riolu was talking to me, but it didn't speak. It was like he spoke to me through his mind, or something like that.

I turned back to the trainer. "No way. If this Riolu is really yours, then you can call it back to its poke ball. If you can do that, then I'll leave you alone. Otherwise, back the hell up and leave!"

Frustrated, the trainer shouted "Okay, I'm trying to catch it! Now get out of my way before I have Stunky blast you!"

_Don't, please help me!_

I heard the voice again. If this trainer was hurting this pokemon so badly, I couldn't let it continue any longer. "I'll tell you what. Lets have a battle, you and me. If you win, you take Riolu. If I win, you leave it alone. Got me?"

He was angry, and obviously didn't like the idea, but he saw the look in my eyes and knew that there was no other option. "Grr, you're on, loser. There's no way any pokemon of yours could EVER beat my Stunky, though!"

"Hmm," I muttered, "I guess we'll see. Umbreon, show this guy what happens when you hurt pokemon! Use dark pulse!"

Umbreon came out of her ball and launched a dozen balls of dark energy at Stunky. Most of them made contact, but the pokemon didn't even seem to notice the attack.

"Hah!" shouted the trainer. "Now its my turn. Stunky, use night slash!"

"Umbreon, dodge!"

Stunky ran in close to Umbreon, trailing dark energy from its claws. It jumped up and attempted to strike Umbreon, but she barely jumped out of the way.

"Okay Umbreon, now get in close with quick attack, then use take down!"

"Stunky, smokescreen, now!"

As Umbreon rocketed towards Stunky, it blasted out a thick cloud of smoke from under its tail, completely enveloping the area so that I couldn't see a thing. After a couple seconds, I heard a crash, and Umbreon came flying out of the cloud, knocked out. I jumped and caught her in my arms as we both fell to the ground.

"Hahaha!" cried the trainer. "Now that Riolu is mine!"

Stunky started moving towards Riolu, but he jumped up and took a strong stance, holding his ground.

"Riolu!" I shouted. "Run, go! Don't get hurt anymore than you already are!"

Riolu just stood there. _No, I must fight back. I don't want to go with him, he's a bad man._

As Stunky dashed towards Riolu to use night slash, Riolu grabbed it and drove his knee into its jaw, knocking it up into the air.

"Whoa, that was its reversal attack, right!" asked Amy.

Riolu jumped up into the air, and its right hand began to glow a bright white. He spun around once, and brought it down on Stunky, delivering a textbook perfect focus punch, and sending Stunky flying down and crashing into its trainer.

Riolu landed perfectly on the balls of his feet, and took a defensive stance, ready for more. The trainer, however, had had enough. He put his Stunky back into its ball, and stood up.

"Damn! If you want it so badly, then you take it, I'm out of here!" And with that, he turned tail and ran away.

Still on the ground, I consoled Umbreon. "Hey, you did a great job, girl. I'm so proud of you." She purred happily, and I put her back into her poke ball. I sat up, and looked over at the Riolu, who, now that the battle was over, fainted from exhaustion. Startled, I picked up in my arms.

"Steph, I'm taking him to the pokemon center," I declared. "He needs help, now, and I'm gonna get him there."

Steph nodded. "Sure thing, lets get going, Joe."

Amy nodded, and the three of us ran to the pokemon center.

After a couple hour, nurse Joy came out from the healing room, and came out to the waiting room where we were sitting.

"Riolu will be fine," she said with a smile. "He's been badly injured, but its nothing that we can't fix. He should be ready to get going in a few hours, but I think its best that he stays here for the night so I can keep him under observation. Does he belong to any of you?"

We all shook our heads. "I found him battling against a trainer outside of professor Rowan's lab. We got caught up in the middle, and ended up defending him. After the fight, he just fainted."

Nurse Joy nodded. "Of course. Well, Joe, I think that since you were the one to help him, you should talk to him and see if he wants to join you. I can take you to see him if you'd like."

My mouth dropped open. Taking Riolu as my pokemon? I hadn't considered it before, but it didn't sound like a bad idea. "Okay nurse Joy, I'll go see him."

She led me into the recovery room, and I saw Riolu lying on a small bed by the window. Nurse Joy walked me over to him, and I sat on a stool by the side.

_Thank you,_ he said. _You helped me fight the bad man. You made him go away. Does that make you my friend?_

I nodded and smiled. "Of course it does, Riolu. Actually, I wanted to ask you if you'd like to come travel with my friends and I. Of course, I'd have to catch you in a poke ball, like that other trainer tried to. I'd love it if you came with us, but its completely up to you, Riolu."

_Travel with you? As a… friend?_

"Of course, Riolu. You'll be my friend, just like Umbreon. We can all train together, to get stronger. So do you want to come with us?"

_Like… Umbreon. Strong pokemon, I will be that strong someday? Yes, I want to go! I want to go!_

I smiled, and petted the side of Riolu's face. "Well, welcome to the group then, Riolu! We're all gonna have so much fun together!"

_Fun… Friends… Yes. Thank you, friend…_


	4. Riolu Joins

I sat on a bench outside the pokemon center, watching the sun rise over a far away mountain range. In the distance, I could hear a strange, yet pleasing musical sound rising up. I'd been hearing it for a couple hours now. According to nurse Joy, it was the musical sound of Kricketot, small bug-type pokemon that lived nearly everywhere in Sinnoh, and were most common in the mornings.

I heard the door of the pokemon center open, and a yawn. I looked in that direction, and saw Amy stepping out of the doorway, stretching. She hadn't noticed me yet, and I didn't make any sounds. She grabbed the poke ball from her belt, and held it out in front of her.

"Chimchar," she exhaled softly. "You're gonna be great, I just know it. So I'm going to do everything I can to become a better trainer, that way you can become a great pokemon. Come on out!"

She tossed the poke ball, and out came Chimchar, her small, monkey-like fire-type pokemon.

"Char!" he cried out, jumping up onto her leg, then climbing up to her shoulders, where he sat and rubbed the side of his face against hers. She smiled and laughed.

"Come on Chimchar, lets get a bit of practice in before everyone wakes up, okay? I wanna see what you can do." They started walking off into the forest nearby.

I sat there on the bench, thinking about everything from being here in Sinnoh, to my friends back home, to my pokemon that were at professor Birch's lab. Seeing Amy and her Chimchar reminded me a bit of Kirlia. I decided to go see what Amy was up to, so I stood up and walked into the forest.

I found her not too far inwards. It was easy, since I could spot Chimchar's tail flame from far off.

"Chimchar, use scratch on that tree!"

Chimchar ran up to a particularly unremarkable tree, and began scratching away with its little claws. After awhile, he got winded, and stopped, with dozens of claw marks cut into the tree, spaced pretty closely together. Amy stepped to him, knelt down, and rubbed the top of his head.

"Great job, Chimchar. You wanna take a little break and play around?"

"Char, Chimchar!"

"Haha, okay then."

Chimchar started running around, climbing trees and swinging from branch to branch. Eventually, he noticed me, and dropped down onto my head. Amy, who still didn't know I was there, finally saw me and jumped in surprise.

"Joe!" she cried out. "Umm, what are you doing here? How long have you been out here?"

I walked forward, petting Chimchar. "Not too long, I just got out here, but I saw you come out earlier. I can see you made a good choice with Chimchar." I motioned towards the scratched up tree. "Those marks are pretty close together. I think Chimchar is going to be good with close up attacks. You know, like, directing his attacks to one point, and stuff like that."

She smiled, and Chimchar jumped from my shoulder to the top of her head. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She looked down at her feet. "You must be a really smart trainer, then, to know stuff like that."

"Nahh, I wouldn't say smart," I said with a laugh. "I think experienced is more like it. I've been in a lot of battles, tough ones too. I guess what it comes down to is your ability to read your opponent's moves before they make them, and react in time to both get your pokemon out of the way, and set up a counter attack. Although, even I haven't really gotten to the point where I can read my opponent's mind, haha."

"You're right, Joe," she said with a smile. "So, do you want to battle then? So I can work on what you said, reading your opponent."

I grabbed Umbreon's ball off my belt and grinned. "Okay, you've got it. Umbreon, lets go!"

Umbreon came out of her ball, and purred lightly. Chimchar dropped from Amy's shoulder, and started jumping up and down, switching legs with each jump and landing.

"You make the first move," I said to Amy.

"Okay!" she replied. "Alright, umm, Chimchar use scratch!"

"Umbreon, detect!"

Chimchar ran at Umbreon, claws glowing a faint white color. He swung, but Umbreon read the move and deftly dodged to the left.

"Ahh!" cried out Amy. "Chimchar, use scratch again!"

Chimchar located Umbreon, and attacked again, this time striking her. She seemed unfazed by the attack, and hit with quick attack, sending Chimchar flying backwards. He landed on his feet, and opened his mouth to use ember, launching dozens of small spheres of flame at Umbreon. She fired a shadow ball at him, which took all of the fire spheres, neutralizing the attack. Umbreon followed up with a quick attack, launching Chimchar up into the air, and crashing down to the ground. Chimchar tried to get up, but he fell back down.

"No, Chimchar!" Amy cried out, and ran to pick him up in her arms.

Umbreon and I ran out to them as well, and I knelt down beside Amy. "Oh no, I'm sorry!" I apologized. "Is he hurt bad, Chimchar are you okay?"

Chimchar opened his eyes, and smiled brightly. "Chim, char!"

Amy laughed quietly. "I think that means he's okay." She put him back into his poke ball. "Take a little break, okay?"

From nowhere, we saw a group of six small blue and black pokemon that looked like lion cubs, running through the forest.

"What were those?" Amy asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "That was weird."

_Joe, where are you?_

I heard the voice in my head, Riolu calling me from the pokemon center. He was still asleep when I checked up on him early this morning. He was finally up, and I wanted to go see him.

"Amy, lets get back to the pokemon center," I said. "I want to check on Riolu, to check on Riolu, to see how he's doing." She nodded, and we left for the pokemon center, Umbreon back in her ball.

I still didn't understand why I could hear him speaking to me. It was like some kind of telepathy, and I wasn't the only one who could hear it. Steph and Amy could also hear him speaking, as well as nurse Joy. We hurried back to the pokemon center.

Inside Riolu's room, I saw Steph and nurse Joy by his bedside. We walked up to them, and I sat on a stool by the head of Riolu's bed.

_Joe,_ he said, _friend, you are here!_

I smiled, and grabbed his hand. "Yeah, Riolu, I'm here." I looked up at the nurse, and asked "So how's he doing, nurse Joy?"

She opened up a binder she was holding, and looked it over once. "He's going to be fine, don't worry. His injuries worried me a bit, but he's making an excellent recovery. You'll be glad to hear that he's physically fit to be put into a poke ball now. You can officially make him your pokemon now."

From the doorway, we heard someone speak. "But before you do, Joe, there's something you need to know about that pokemon."

We all looked at the doorway, and there stood a tall man, about forty years old, with white hair, and a white lab coat. He stepped into the room, and walked towards us.

Confused, I asked "Umm, excuse me sir, but who are you, and how do you know my name?"

Nurse Joy answered my question. "How do you not know him? He's professor Rowan, the leading expert on pokemon here in Sinnoh!" She turned to face him. "Welcome to our pokemon center, professor, how are you today?"

"I'm fine, thank you," he answered. "Joe, professor Birch in Hoenn called me a couple of days ago and told me that you and your friend would be here in Hoenn. I meant to speak to you yesterday at my lab, but you left before I could arrive." He looked down at Amy, who was, again, looking down at her feet. "You must be young Amy, am I right? I apologize for not being present when you received your pokemon, I was out on important business."

"Umm," she muttered, "Its okay, professor."

I looked up at him. "Professor, I have a few questions about Riolu." Rowan turned his attention from Amy to me. "Let me guess, you want to know why you can hear him speaking, although its widely known that pokemon cannot speak, am I correct?"

Stunned, I replied "Ahh, yeah, that's right. Why, professor?"

He took a seat on the other side of Riolu's bed. "That is precisely the reason I came here to speak with you as soon as I heard you'd rescued a Riolu. You see, Riolu and its evolutionary line are quite in tune with a form of energy called aura. Every living being on earth gives off aura in some form. Riolu, and its evolved form Lucario, are the only creatures that can use aura as a means to achieve an end. Normally, only Lucario are powerful enough to focus their aura into telepathic abilities."

"I, I think I understand," I whispered, now understanding. "But if only Lucario are able to use telepathy, then why is Riolu speaking to us?"

Professor Rowan shifted his gaze to Riolu, who was now sitting up on the bed, listening intently to our conversation.

"It appears," Rowan continued, "that this Riolu is quite more in sync with its aura-related abilities than others of its kind and level. It is still not powerful enough to focus its aura in the ways that a Lucario can, and as such it cannot 'speak' to only one person at a time. Much like a radio station broadcasts its programs to all around who are listening, Riolu's speech can be heard by all those around it. However, with much training and practice, I believe Riolu will be able to use its aura in ways not even imagined yet. And that is another thing I need to speak with you about, Joe."

I nodded. "Of course, professor, go on."

"Joe," he said, "this Riolu, and all of its kind, are truly magnificent and powerful creatures. As such, it will require many hours of training for it to become as physically and mentally powerful as it is meant to be. This kind of training is rigorous, and for some cannot even be completed, as it is only doable by those with strong, pure wills and hearts. Riolu is still a young, naïve, and impressionable pokemon. Do you think that you have the ability, as both a trainer and a human being, to raise this pokemon to the fullest of both of your abilities?"

I turned my view from Rowan to Riolu. "Riolu," I said, "I think we can do this. Its gonna take a long time, but I'm willing to train you to the fullest of your potential. But I'll only do it if you'll allow me to train you. Are you ready?"

Riolu turned its head down, and immersed itself in thought. Suddenly, he popped his head back up, and replied.

_Yes, I am ready. Joe, friend, I will train with you, and travel with you, and I will do my best to not disappoint you._

I smiled. "That's great Riolu." I turned to professor Rowan. "Professor, I think we're ready."

"That's good, Joe," he said. "Now all that's left is for you to capture Riolu in a poke ball."

"Oh, wait!" cried out nurse Joy. "I think that a special pokemon like Riolu deserves a special poke ball. Chansey!" She called out to her assistant, a big, pink, egg-shaped pokemon called Chansey, which entered the room. "Chansey, go get me the ball that we found the other day."

"Chansey, chan!" It wobbled out of the room, and came back a few seconds later, holding a strangely colored poke ball. Instead of red and white, it was mostly black. There was an orange ring around the top of it, and also around the middle, wrapping around the button in the center of the ball. Chansey handed the ball to nurse Joy, who handed it to me.

"Its called a luxury ball," she said. "it's a special kind of poke ball that makes pokemon even more friendly towards you. I've been saving it for a special time, and I think that its best if you take it for Riolu."

I turned my attention from the ball to Riolu. "Well," I asked, "are you ready?"

He nodded his head, and I tapped the enlarged ball to his forehead. From the ball came a beam of red energy, which enveloped Riolu and turned him into energy as well. The beam quickly jumped back into the ball, and it closed. The ball started shaking, rolling from left to right. It continued rolling for longer than I normally remembered balls moving for.

"Professor, is there something wrong with it?" I asked, worriedly.

"Hmm," he muttered. "I don't believe there is anything wrong with Riolu. It could possibly be that he's simply scared. Of course, no human has ever been put inside of a poke ball, so we could never fully understand the process that takes place."

"For all we know, it could be terrifying," said Steph, who'd been remarkably quiet the entire time we'd been here. "Riolu could be really scared. Maybe he's just getting used to whats going on."

The ball continued rolling around, with everyone in the room watching intently. Finally, the ball stopped, and let out a metallic clicking noise. We all sat there, staring, until I finally reached out and picked up the ball. I clicked the button again to open it, and Riolu came out, down on one knee on the bed. He slowly rose up to his feet, and met my gaze.

_Does this mean… I am… your friend?_

I reached out with both arms, picked him up, and pulled him in for a tight hug. "Riolu! Of course you're my friend! You'll always be my friend." I put him back down on the bed. "Now you can train, and get stronger. It just means that now you'll travel with me, as my pokemon. Are you ready to go?"

… _yes._


	5. Sick Pokemon and Poachers

"Okay Riolu, hit with quick attack!"

"Chimchar, dodge and use ember!"

Riolu ran towards Chimchar at breakneck speed, jumping into a head first tackle and hitting Chimchar in the chest. Chimchar flew back a couple feet, landed on the ground, and got back up to his feet with hardly a struggle.

"Chimchar still needs practice," I said to Amy, who was now at Chimchar's side. "He needs work with moving out of the way, and dodging attacks."

Amy looked up at me and nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Thanks for helping me train, Joe, I appreciate it." Chimchar started jumping into the air happily, making myself, Amy, and Riolu laugh. "I guess Chimchar appreciates it, too."

Steph's voice came up from our campsite. "You guys, breakfast is ready!"

I looked over at where she was making breakfast. "Alright Steph, thanks!" I looked back down to Amy. "You ready for some breakfast?"

She nodded, and her, myself, and our pokemon headed over to the campsite. We'd left Sandgem town last night, and camped out here in the woods overnight. Amy and I had been practicing for about an hour, since we woke up earlier. We were more than ready for some food.

Steph had set out bowls for all of our pokemon, and filled them with pokemon food. I let out Umbreon, and Steph let out Marshtomp. It was the only pokemon she'd brought to Sinnoh, and it was her first pokemon back in Hoenn. Umbreon, Marshtomp, Riolu, and Chimchar all started eating, as did we. After breakfast, we packed up camp and set out for Jubilife city.

We walked through the forest, passing by groups of strange pokemon that I'd never seen before. There were, of course, the Kricketot that I'd heard before, but also some weird little furry pokemon with big front teeth that Amy's pokedex called Bidoof and Bibarel. As strange as they were, Steph thought that they looked oddly cute. We stopped by the small pond where they were playing for a few minutes, then continued.

We were almost to the outskirts of the city when we saw four little blue, black, and yellow pokemon running across the road, each carrying a berry in its mouth.

"Aren't those the pokemon that we saw yesterday in the forest?" inquired Amy.

I scratched my chin. "Yeah, they look like them," I replied. "Lets follow them. I wanna see where they're going."

Amy and Steph nodded, and we set out after the four pokemon, following them into the woods. The three of us walked silently behind the small pokemon, far back enough that they wouldn't detect us. Finally, we came to a small outside den, their destination.

Lying against a tree was a much larger version of the small pokemon. It had black and blue colored fur, with a large, yellow tuft at the end of its tail. Amy took out her pokedex and scanned the small pokemon, and the larger one, revealing their names to be Shinx and Luxray, electric-type pokemon. The Luxray noticed us, and although it tried to get up, she fell back down to her side. Instead, the four smaller ones, undeniably her cubs, laid their berries next to her mouth and turned to us, growling ferociously.

"Oh no," whispered Steph, who put her hand to her mouth. "This Luxray is their mother, and she's sick. I'm guessing that they've been going out to get her berries to help her." She turned to me. "Joe, can you bring out Riolu? I figure since we can understand what he says, he might be able to help me figure out whats wrong so I can help her. These Shinx might not let me get close enough."

I nodded, and took out Riolu's poke ball. Ever since Umbreon had gotten sick that one time in Hoenn, just after my battle with the gym leader in Fortree city, Steph had been our de-facto pokemon doctor. She used a mix of berries and pokemon medicine to heal Umbreon. If Riolu could calm the Shinx, then Steph might be able to help their mother. "Riolu, come on out."

He came out of his ball down on one knee, with a hand touching the ground. He stood up and faced me. _What is it that you need?_

"Riolu," I said, "the Luxray is sick, and Steph needs to help her, but her cubs are defending her, and Steph can't get close. Could you let them know that we're just trying to help, and that we won't hurt them, or their mother?"

Riolu nodded, and slowly walked towards the Shinx. He closed his eyes, and told them exactly what I'd asked him to. They backed down for a second, and conversed with each other, then the Luxray. After a minute, they nodded to Riolu, and he turned to Steph.

_You may now approach their mother. They say that she has been like this for two days. She is barely able to stand, and has not eaten much since yesterday. They ask that you please do whatever you can to help her._

Steph nodded, and looked at the Shinx, who were lying down on their bellies, worried expressions twisting their faces into sadness. "Don't worry," she said to them, smiling. "I'll do everything I can to help your mother, okay?"

She stepped forward slowly, still cautious just in case they changed their minds, and knelt down at Luxray's side. She placed her right hand on Luxray's belly, and ran it up and down her side slowly. Next, she took a berry that the Shinx had placed nearby, and tasted it. Her face twisted and contorted in disgust, and she spit it out. I was confused, since she'd tasted nearly every kind of berry that there was, and this one, a Sitrus berry, was one of her favorites.

"Steph," asked Amy, "whats wrong with it?"

She tasted the other berries, and had the same result with each of them. "There's something definitely wrong with the berries," she said, as she turned to face us. "Normally, the sitrus berry has a mix of dry, bitter, sweet, and sour flavors. These ones, though, have a fifth flavor, spicy. Also, they're soft, and sitrus berries are supposed to be extremely hard to the touch. I think that something, or someone, is altering the berries around here, and this Luxray had a couple too many of them."

I nodded. "So then what can you do to help her, if these berries around here are bad?"

She took off her backpack, and opened up the pocket that she'd specially modified to hold berries, and keep them fresh for over a week. She took out a pecha berry and an oran berry, and then a tiny, portable blender she kept in her backpack. She blended the two berries together with some water from my water bottle, and put it into a small dish she kept with her, placing the dish in front of Luxray.

"If what I think is right," she said to herself, "if the berries are poisoned, then this should heal her up enough so she'll be able to stand."

Luxray slowly crawled towards the dish, sniffed it, and started lapping up the berry juice and water mixture. She must have liked it, because it was gone in a couple of seconds. After a bit of straining, Luxray stood up, and her cubs happily dashed and pranced around her, overjoyed that their mother was now better, if only slightly.

Steph smiled, and turned to Riolu. "Riolu, can you let them know that even though she's able to get up now, she's still going to need a lot of rest before she can move around away from the den, and that they'll have to take care of her, please?"

_Yes, of course._

He turned to the Shinx and their mother, and told them what Steph had said. The Luxray walked over to him, and it seemed as if she was telling him something extremely important. He stood there, listening intently to her for a while, then he nodded and turned to us.

_She says thank you for healing her, and that her and her children will be forever grateful. She also told me the location of the plants where she ate the berries that made her sick. Her children have since been using different plants, and they have not gotten sick. She thinks that it may only be that one bush, but that there may be others._

"Right," I said. "Thanks Riolu, you were a big help today. Take a rest, okay?" I put him into his poke ball and reattached it to my belt. Then I turned to Steph and Amy.

"You guys," I said, "if the berries were poisoned, it can't have been an accident, someone did this on purpose."

Steph nodded. "I agree. Whoever did this had a reason, and a bad one. We've got to find out who did it, why, and stop them, or else every pokemon in the forest is at risk." She turned to Amy. "You and Joe need to go to the town nearby and let officer Jenny and nurse Joy know whats going on out here. While you're in town, see if you guys can find some info on whoever's doing this. It might be just one person, but there could be more involved. If this is some kind of sick, twisted pokemon poaching thing, we've got to stop it, and fast, before more pokemon get hurt."

"Umm, okay," said Amy. "You've got it, Steph. I'll, umm, do whatever I can to help."

"We'll go, Steph," I added, "but what about you? Are you going to stay out here with Luxray and the Shinx?"

She nodded. "If I'm right, and there's a poacher at work here, then I've got to stay back to protect them. Luxray isn't anywhere near fit to battle, and her cubs can't be more than a few weeks old." She took out Swampert's poke ball. "We'll handle things here, okay? You two go figure out what the hell's going on here."

We nodded, and left Steph there, with Luxray and her children. Amy and I walked to the town that was further down the road. We found the pokemon center, and told nurse Joy about what happened out in the woods. She sent some of her assistants out there to investigate, and she also called officer Jenny, who wanted to meet with us at the pokemon center, so we waited there for her.

After about ten minutes, officer Jenny walked through the doors of the pokemon center, and sat by Amy and I. Nurse Joy also came over to talk with us, so we told them what we'd saw, and what happened.

"And so your friend is out there with Luxray and the Shinx now, right?" asked officer Jenny.

I nodded. "Yeah, she said that if there is someone out there, she wants to protect them from whoever it may be."

Officer Jenny and nurse Joy looked at each other quietly. Confused, I asked "Is there something going on?"

Nurse Joy looked at me solemnly. "Joe, we've been getting trainers in here lately with pokemon that have the same symptoms as the Luxray. I've asked officer Jenny to investigate, and she's discovered that many wild pokemon in the area that have been befriended by locals have disappeared."

"I personally believe that it's the work of a group of poachers," added officer Jenny. "They're poisoning the berries to adjust the flavors in a way that will make the pokemon sick, and easier to steal. I've found sets of three footprints around the areas where the locals have reported missing pokemon, but they all disappear after a few yards. My deputies and I have been out doing searches in the woods, but so far we've come up empty. Whoever's doing this is obviously skilled, since not even our Poochyena and Growlithe can find their scent. Do you two think you'll be able to help me out?"

I nodded. "Of course, officer. I love all pokemon, even those that don't belong to me. When people hurt them on purpose, just to make money, it pisses me off more than anything I can think of. I'll do whatever I can to help." I turned to Amy. "I know you're just a beginner, Amy, but would you be able to help me out?"

She looked down at her shoes, and tapped her feet together a couple of times. "Umm, sure, I guess." She confidently looked up at me, smiled, then said "Yeah, I'll help you, Joe, no problem!"

Nurse Joy and officer Jenny both smiled, and officer Jenny said "Great, kids. We'll need all the help we can -"

"JOE!"

Hearing my name shouted like that, I stood up and looked around. My eyes stopped when I saw Steph at the entrance of the pokemon center. There could be only one reason she was here. "Steph, they're gone, aren't they?"

She nodded, and rushed over to where we were. "Three people came out of nowhere when I was out there, two guys and a girl. They wanted the pokemon, so I told them no. We battled, and I took out one of the guys with Swampert, but the chick had a grass-type that I've never seen before, and it put Swampert down in just one attack! Joe, we've got to go, we've got to-"

"Steph, calm down," I said, interrupting her. "We're gonna head out right now, don't worry we'll get them."

Officer Jenny stood up and walked over to her. "Do you have anything on you that would have their scent? Or did their pokemon touch you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, the grass-type grabbed me with vine whip, is that good enough?"

Officer Jenny took out a poke ball. "I sure hope it is. Growlithe, come out and use odor sleuth, we need to get the scent this time."

From the ball came a small, orange and black pokemon. It was a smaller version of Valerie's Arcanine, definitely its pre-evolution. He walked over to Steph and sniffed her legs and body, trying to get the scent of whatever pokemon had attacked her.

After a few seconds, officer Jenny was beginning to get disheartened, and she took out Growlithe's poke ball to put him back. However, before she did, he stiffened, and started barking. He jumped up and down twice, then ran to the door and continued to bark.

Officer Jenny suddenly looked excited. "Wow, Growlithe, you found the scent great job! Now take us to it, baby!"

She opened the door, and Growlithe dashed outside. All of us followed officer Jenny, except for nurse Joy, who stayed behind to heal Steph's Swampert. After a few minutes, we came across a small camp. Officer Jenny put Growlithe into its poke ball, and the four of us hid behind some bushes just out of hearing range of the camp.

There were four tents. Two guys, one with black hair and the other with brown hair, were sitting by the campfire in the middle, eating. Out of one of the tents came a tall woman with black hair. She sat between the two men and started eating too. For some reason, the two men started arguing, and they stood up, facing each other, ready to fight. The woman, however, sat still, and said a few words to them. Both of them turned to her, but she stood up, and they both sat back down, cowering in fear. Apparently she was in charge.

"Officer Jenny," I whispered, "what's the plan?"

She grabbed one of her poke balls, and stood up. "Joe, you and me will take them head-on. The pokemon must be in one of those tents. Steph, you and Amy will go around and search the tents while Joe and I battle these guys, got it?"

They nodded. "Okay then," I said. "Here goes. Umbreon, lets go!"

Umbreon came out of her ball, and took a defensive stance. Although it wasn't dark out yet, her bands had a powerful glow to them already. I hadn't battled with her since she got beaten by that Stunky at professor Rowan's lab. She was ready to redeem herself.

"Alright Umbreon, blast a shadow ball at the fire to distract them!"

"Brehh, On!" Umbreon charged up a dark ball of energy, and launched it at the campfire. It made contact, and sent small rocks, and food flying everywhere. While the three people were distracted, officer Jenny and I, along with Umbreon and Growlithe, who she'd just brought out again, ran up to them. Amy and Steph, on the other hand, circled around and went to the back of the campsite.

By the time we'd gotten down to the camp, the poachers had recovered, and sent out their pokemon. One of them had an orange and yellow moth-like pokemon, and the other had a black and yellow bee-like pokemon.

Officer Jenny gasped. "Mothim and Vespiquen! Joe, be careful, Umbreon has a weakness to bug-type pokemon!"

I nodded. "I know, officer, she can take 'em, though. Umbreon, lets go, dark pulse!"

Umbreon charged up a purple and black ball of energy, which then fired dozens of similar balls at the two bug pokemon. A couple hit, but hardly did any damage.

"Growlithe, use flamethrower!" shouted officer Jenny. Growlithe opened his mouth and let slip a stream of flames, but the pokemon it was aimed at, Vespiquen, dodged the attack.

"Hah!" laughed one of the poachers. "Now its our turn. Vespiquen, signal beam, now!"

The other poacher ordered next. "Mothim, silver wind!"

The Vespiquen blasted a multiple-colored beam from the red gem on its forehead at Umbreon, while the Mothim fluttered its wings violently, sending blades of shining wind at Growlithe.

"Umbreon, dodge and use confuse ray on Vespiquen!"

"Growlithe, intercept the attack with flamethrower!"

Umbreon barely escaped the attack, and fired a shining beam at Vespiquen, which hit and confused it. Growlithe blasted a stream of flames at Mothim, neutralizing the silver wind attack, but not quite making it all the way.

"Grr, Vespiquen use power gem!"

Vespiquen, still confused, turned to face Mothim, and fired a bright, silver beam from its gem at it, striking Mothim and knocking him unconscious.

Mothim's owner, the guy with black hair, turned to the other poacher. "What the hell, man! We're trying to take them out, not each other, you idiot!"

The brown haired poacher gulped "Dude, I'm sorry, its not my fault! Vespiquen's confused!"

"I'll show you confused, you stupid son of a-"

"That's enough, all of you!" A voice came out of nowhere, a woman's voice. Suddenly, from under us came long, hard vines. They wrapped around officer Jenny, myself, and our pokemon, picking us up high into the air and holding us there. I looked over to the tents, and the same had happened to Steph and Amy.

From behind a tent came the dark haired woman, their leader. She stepped closer to us, as did her pokemon. The grass-type that Steph had fought earlier was this pokemon. It looked like a venus flytrap, with large leaves for hands, and a bundle of vines for legs. It was using vine whip into the ground, holding us up in the air.

"Officer," I asked, "what pokemon is that!"

"Its called a Carnivine," she answered. "They're really rare. The only place to find one is the Pastoria city Great Marsh. She either got it there, or on the black market."

The woman started to speak. "I can see you've caught on to us. Actually, its quite a surprise. And to think, if you kids hadn't found that Luxray, we would've been perfectly fine." She turned to one of the tents. "We won't take any of the pokemon with us, we'll leave them. We weren't going to get a good enough paycheck for them, anyways."

Angrily, I shouted "Just who the hell do you think you are, taking pokemon like this!"

She looked over at me, and smiled. "You're straight to the point, I like that. We don't usually disclose our names to people, but since you asked me so kindly, we're the Pokemon Grab Squad. I'm Vanessa, and these two bumbling fools are my partners, Raul and Vincent."

"You kids shouldn't have messed with us," grumbled Vincent, the one with black hair. "Now we're gonna have to hurt 'ya."

"He's right, kids," laughed Raul. "You know too much, and we can't just let you go like that."

"Oh, you two shut up already," said Vanessa, a hint of annoyment in her voice. "We're not going to do anything to them. We're just going to get out of here, and leave them alone. Besides, I just got a call about a high value target near Oreburgh city. Lets go, fools."

"Yes, ma'am!" shouted both of them at the same time. Vincent and Raul recalled their pokemon, and headed off into the woods. Vanessa's Carnivine released its hold on us, and followed after her into the woods. When we all got up, we also ran after them, but each of us was tripped up. She'd had Carnivine use grass knot before they completely escaped, just to make sure that we couldn't follow.

When we got back up, Growlithe tried to use odor sleuth to get the scent again, but it was gone, just like before. Instead of following them, we searched the tents again, and found the missing pokemon in one of them. A couple of Bidoof, their evolved form Bibarel, and Luxray and her baby Shinx, all four of them. We took them all back to their homes in the forest. Then, once Luxray and the Bibarel showed us where the poisoned berry bushes were, we plucked every last one of the poisoned berries, and disposed of them.

Back at the pokemon center, Steph's Swampert was fully healed up, and the three of us were ready to get back on the road to Jubilife city. Outside to wave us off were officer Jenny and nurse Joy.

"Goodbye, you three," chimed nurse Joy. "The pokemon around here and I all appreciate your help today. You've helped to save many pokemon today, kids, thank you so much." "Your welcome, nurse Joy!" we all said at the same time. I turned to officer Jenny.

"Officer," I asked, "we helped the pokemon, but what about those poachers? They got away."

She nodded. "True, they did, but we know where they're going now. I'll call the police department in Oreburgh city, and alert them. You know, Oreburgh city has a pokemon gym. If you're serious about strengthening your pokemon, I'd suggest challenging the leader there. Of course, you'd have to get registered for the Sinnoh league in Jubilife city, first."

"Yeah, that's a great idea!" I replied enthusiastically. "I'll get registered in Jubilife city, then we'll head to Oreburgh and see if we can stop those three. Then I'll challenge the gym leader for a badge!" I turned to Amy and Steph. "Does that sound okay to you guys?"

They both smiled and nodded. "Sounds great, you should, umm, do it," replied Amy.

"I'm behind you 100%, Joe!" replied Steph.

I laughed. "Alright then, guys, lets get going!"


	6. The Trainer's School

We'd finally made it to Jubilife city. Steph and I, having been to Rustboro city and Lilycove city, weren't too surprised at being in a place with such large buildings. Amy, however, seemed completely awe-struck. She gawked in amazement at the skyscrapers and high-rise buildings we passed by as we walked down the main streets of Jubilife. Steph and I laughed quietly at this.

"So you've never seen buildings like this, Amy?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Umm, no, I haven't. I've never been to a big city before, except for Slateport city, I mean. But this place is so much bigger than Slateport…"

Steph chuckled. "Don't worry, Amy," she said. "You'll get used to places like this traveling with us. Hey look, there's the pokemon center!"

We all looked forward down the street, and saw a huge building with a giant P above the entrance. I laughed and smiled widely. "Come on guys!" I shouted. "Lets go!" I started running down the street.

"Joe, wait up!" cried Steph, as her and Amy tried to catch up to me. There was no way, though, since by the time I'd gotten up to the desk and asked for the Sinnoh League registration form, they'd barely entered. Again, Amy was shocked at the sheer size of the building, even more so by the inside of it.

After I filled out the forms, I turned them over to the person who was in charge, a pretty, young girl with black hair. She took glances at me every few seconds while going over my paperwork, smiling in the process. She was cute, but a bit too young for my taste. Finally, she put the paper on a scanner, copied it, and put both copies into separate files. She typed some things into a computer, then turned back to me.

"Okay Joe," she said with a kind of nervous smile. "You're officially registered for the Sinnoh league." She reached under the desk and brought out a small case. "This is your badge case, for holding your badges as you progress."

"Okay, thanks!" I walked over to where Amy and Steph were sitting, waiting for me. I tried to hold back my excitement, but I started tapping my fingers against my side. Amy seemed to notice.

"So, umm," she started, "I guess you're happy to be registered, huh?"

"Hell yes!" I half-shouted, startling her, and causing her to jump up slightly in her seat. "Ahh, sorry, haha, didn't mean to scare you there."

She rubbed the back of her head, and laughed nervously. "Umm, its okay, I'm fine."

Steph stood up and smiled. "So then I guess this is the official beginning of our league journey, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess it is," I looked down, but then looked back up, now ready for anything. "I can't wait to get going!"

Suddenly, I head voices coming from behind me. Little kids voices. "Oh my god, its him!", "Yeah, it is, oh wow!", "Come on, lets go talk to him!", "No, you go do it!"

I turned around, and saw a young boy and girl, probably around eight or nine years old, talking to each other, and staring over at me. They both had backpacks on, so I figured they were a couple of school kids. As soon as my eyes met theirs, they turned away in surprise. Finally, the girl got up the courage to walk over to me, followed by the little boy.

"You're Joe, aren't you!" she asked. "From Hoenn?"

I smiled, and nodded. "That's me. How do you know my name?"

The two of them started jumping up and down, shouting "Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! I can't believe its actually you!"

I laughed a bit at this. "Okay kids, calm down. What do you want, and how do you know my name?"

They stopped jumping, and giggled. The boy started, "What do you mean, how do we know your name? Who doesn't know your name? We watched you in the Hoenn league on TV at the Trainer's School. Our teacher Mr. Max let us watch the battles to show us about battling. I'm your biggest fan!"

The little girl pushed him out of the way. "Nuh-uh! I'm his biggest fan! You're just a poop-head!"

"Nuh-uh, I'm not!" countered the boy. "I'm telling mom when we get home that you called me that!"

The two kids looked like they were about to start fighting, so I decided to calm them down. "Hey, you two, calm down, there's no need to fight, okay? How about you two show us where the Trainer's School is?"

They both stopped fighting, nodded, and said "Okay, come follow us!"

A few minutes later, the five of us came to a large building with three floors. "We're here!" shouted the kids, and they rushed inside.

Steph tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around to face her. "Joe," she said with a stern expression on her face, "why are we were? Shouldn't we be getting to Oreburgh city for you first gym battle?"

I laughed lightly, then said "Yeah, but maybe we can learn a couple of things here. Plus, I want to see if I can get a good battle in with their teacher."

Steph put her hands on her hips, and sighed. "Alright, I guess we can stay for a little while." She smiled, then continued "Maybe they've got a class about pokemon medicine!"

Amy chuckled, then said "And maybe I can learn more stuff about how to raise Chimchar!" With that, the three of us entered.

The first room of the building was huge, and round, with a large, oval reception desk in the middle, and two sets of stairs going up to a landing on the second floor. We walked up to the desk, and I spoke to the lady sitting behind it.

"Excuse me," I asked, "can you tell me where Mr. Max's room is?"

"Sure thing," she replied with a smile. "Its up the stairs on the second floor, room six. Let me guess, you've met Mari and Mako already, right?"

Guessing that those were the names of the kids, nodded. "Yeah, they told us that they watched me battling on TV, and to follow them here to meet their teacher."

Suddenly, the two kids appeared behind the railing on the landing above us. "Come on, Joe, hurry up!"

The receptionist laughed, then said "Go on up, then."

We thanked her, and followed the kids up the stairs and back to their classroom. Inside, there were about ten other kids around their age, and a tall, brownish-blonde haired man standing at the front of the class. He seemed to be in his mid-twenties, pretty young for a teacher. He noticed us come in, and walked over to us.

"Hey, you're Joe! From the Hoenn league!" He turned to the little kids, then said "Everyone, come say hello!"

All the little kids stood up and ran over to where Steph, Amy, and I were standing, and started jumping up and down, shouting in excitement. It took a few minutes before Max was able to calm them down. He took them all outside for their recess. Outside, he walked over to a large room, and opened the door, letting all the kids in. When they came out, they each had a poke ball, and released a pokemon to play with. After he closed and locked the room, he walked over and sat down next to us.

"So, Joe," he said, "how 'ya likin' Sinnoh so far? Is it really different from Hoenn?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's a bit different, but I think I can get used to it. I like the pokemon over here, though. They all look so different, but in a good way."

Max smiled, then stood up. "Joe, how would you like to have a little battle? Just to show the kids what its like in person."

I stood up and grabbed Umbreon's poke ball off of my belt. "Max, you're on!"

We walked over to the battlefield, and stood on opposite sides. All of the little kids and their pokemon started to gather around the field, interested in what was going on. Steph took up the post of referee, and stood on the side, in the middle.

"Alright guys, this is a one on one battle," she announced. "The first pokemon to make their opponent faint is the winner. Let the battle begin!"

I was ready. "Umbreon, lets go!"

Max tossed his poke ball. "Buizel, get ready for battle!"

From his poke ball came a short, furry pokemon. Most of its fur was a light brown, with beige fur on its belly and tail-tips. There were two blue fins on its arms, and a yellowish collar around its neck.

"Umbreon, watch out. We don't know what this pokemon can do, so keep your guard up, okay?"

"Brehh, On!"

"Buizel!" shouted Max. "Use aqua jet!"

Buizel jumped up into the air, surrounded its body with water, then rocketed towards Umbreon, trailing water behind it.

"Umbreon, use detect!"

Umbreon read Buizel's path, and slid to the side, barely dodging the attack.

"Umbreon, now use shadow ball!"

Umbreon charged up a ball of energy, then shot it at Buizel, barely missing as he dodged. Buizel used water pulse, firing a ring of water at Umbreon, who jumped up to dodge, and blasted back with dark pulse, sending dozens of black balls of energy at Buizel, hitting with three or four. Buizel dropped down to its hands and knees.

"Umbreon, use quick attack while he's down!"

Umbreon dashed towards Buizel, but in the split second before she struck, Buizel swung its fist up, connecting with rock smash and sending Umbreon flying into a backwards skid across the field. Cheers and jeers erupted from the crowd of children surrounding us.

"Great job, Buizel!" shouted Max. "Now get in close and use fury swipes!"

"Umbreon, use endure!"

Buizel rushed to Umbreon and started swinging wildly with its paws, striking left and right, but not doing too much damage. Umbreon just took the hits, one after the other, seemingly unfazed. Finally, when Buizel was tiring, she struck back with faint attack, sending him sliding back. She struck the final blow with dark pulse, this time every ball making contact, and knocking Buizel unconscious.

"The battle is over!" shouted Steph. "Buizel is unable to battle. Umbreon is the winner!" Most of the kids started cheering and shouting in joy and amazement. Amy was with them, jumping up and down in excitement. Max walked over to Buizel and picked him up in his arms. "Great job, Buizel. You may have lost, but you did damn well good enough for me. Take a rest, okay?"

"Bui bui!" cried Buizel happily as Max put him back into his poke ball.

"Umbreon, nice work," I said as I rubbed Umbreon's back. She smiled and licked my face. "Haha, okay, I get it, you're happy you won. Go ahead and take a rest now, Umbreon, you earned it." I put her back into her poke ball, walked over to Max, and shook his hand.

"That was a fun battle, you Buizel is really strong," I said. "I think Umbreon had a good time, too."

Max laughed. "Yeah, I'm sure Buizel had fun battling." He turned to the kids who were watching us. "I hope you all learned from watching our battle today. Never underestimate an opponent, and always be wary of a new opponent. If you're up against a pokemon you've never seen before, play it safe and let your opponent make the first move, that way you can see what they're capable of."

All of the kids nodded, and went back to playing with their pokemon. Steph, Amy, Max, and myself went to the benches where we were sitting earlier. Suddenly, a small, brown pokemon ran up to us and jumped up into Steph's arms. It had a skull as a helmet, and was crying through holes in the skull that revealed its eyes. Amy's pokedex identified it as a Cubone, native to the Kanto region.

"Aww, poor pokemon," said Steph sympathetically. "Why are you crying, Cubone?"

Cubone pointed at a group of pokemon that were tossing a bone back and forth. Confused, I turned to Max. "Whats going on over there?"

He shook his head. "I think those pokemon stole Cubone's bone club. They use it as a weapon, and carry it all the time. Lately, pokemon have been playing pranks and bullying Cubone, but we haven't been able to do anything about it, since the rules of the school clearly state that we have to let the pokemon resolve their own issues."

"Well that's not fair!" cried Steph, who stood up, Cubone still in her arms. "I'm going to do something about this."

She walked over to the other pokemon, and Amy, Max and I followed her. She stopped in front of them and started shouting.

"You pokemon give Cubone her bone back right now! How would you like it if some other pokemon came up and stole your stuff, huh? You wouldn't like it very much, so you shouldn't do it to other pokemon. Now give her bone back!"

The pokemon, two Machop and an Aipom, all laughed at Steph. In anger, she grabbed her poke ball.

"Fine then, I'll let Swampert get it back from you. Come on out!"

Swampert, her gigantic, blue and orange pokemon, came out of its ball with an intimidating look on its face. The other pokemon, scared by the sheer size of Swampert, dropped the bone and ran off in fear. Cubone dropped down from Steph's arms, and picked up her bone. In excitement and happiness, she ran back, jumped up, and hugged Steph's leg, crying tears of joy.

"Aww, are you happy now, Cubone?"

We all laughed, and Max announced to the kids that recess was over. They all took the pokemon back to the room, including Cubone, and Max put them back and locked the room. We followed him inside, and watched him finish his class.

Later, after the kids had left, we were leaving when he stopped us.

"Hey, kids, wait!" he shouted. "Are you gonna be staying in town for a while?"

I shook my head. "No. Actually, we were gonna head off to Oreburgh city tomorrow morning, why?"

"I wanted to ask you if you'd come back again tomorrow. I spoke to the headmaster, and he agreed to allow you all to help teach a class tomorrow. Plus, I spoke to a friend of mine who said he wants to talk to you, Joe. I think you'll all be interested to meet him. He's the president of the Poketch company, and he's agreed to give the three of you free Poketches, so that you can advertise them on your travels."

I looked at Steph, then at Amy. "Is that okay with you guys?"

Amy smiled and nodded. "Umm, yeah sure I'm okay with it."

Steph nodded as well. "I'm in, Joe. I'd like to help out with teaching a class. Maybe I can show them how to properly heal their pokemon!"

I turned back to Max. "My friend, you've got yourself a deal. We'll be back here tomorrow to help you out."

"Great!" he said. "See you tomorrow then!"


End file.
